


Helping Hand

by AlexaRainForest



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: And season 3 of Arrow, Barry does something, Barry is a bit OOC, Established Relationship, Kinda post Season 1 of Flash, M/M, Mention of Death, and Oliver helps him, i guess, sad but fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 03:37:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7919038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexaRainForest/pseuds/AlexaRainForest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry has locked himself in a rom and no one has any idea why. Time to bring in the big guns, aka, Barry's boyfriend, aka, a certain vigilante from Starling City.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Helping Hand

"Barry? Can you please open the door?" Caitlin knocked on the door for about the twentieth time that hour alone. Barry had locked himself in one of the many rooms in STAR Labs and no one had any idea why.

"What happened? Where's Barry?" A sudden voice entered the room.

Caitlin let out a sigh of relief. Iris was here. She should be able to coax him out or at least talk to them. Being childhood friends had that effect.

Caitlin pointed to the door and mouthed, "He's in here."

"Bear?" Iris asked as she knocked on the door. "Bear, are you okay? Can you tell us what's wrong?"

Caitlin walked away from the door and let Iris work her magic.

"Cisco? Have you found the key or anything? Any idea what might've happened? Maybe something at the CCPD?"

Cisco just shook his head, "Nope to all those questions, except maybe the last one. Not too sure about that." He looked just as stressed as she felt.

Barry was one of the most hopeful, optimistic people out there. It was a sudden surprise to see him rush past them and lock himself in a room with no explanations.

Caitlin sighed and looked at the door seeing how Iris was having no luck whatsoever.

"Should we bring in the big guns?" Cisco asked from the computers.

"Yeah," Caitlin said, pulling out her phone. "I got this."

Meanwhile, the Arrow Team was simply relaxing in their cave- whoops  _foundry_. Or relaxing in the best way they know how, which meant sparring. Felicity was sparring with Thea, both women learning moves from each other. Thea was still relatively new to the team and Felicity was never one for the fighting. But they were learning things from each other, and Felicity knew some moves to protect herself. Oliver and Laurel were sparring as well, but far more intense than the one Thea and Felicity was having.

All of a sudden, a phone rang. Everyone stopped what they were doing, foot midair, hands still curled up in fists and thrust out, and took a second to wonder if it was their phone.

"Wait, that's mine!" Felicity said and ran towards her phone. Thea dropped from her position and rested, drinking some water. Oliver and Laurel continued with their sparring, neither wanting to give up.

"Hello?" Felicity answered. A pause, then. "Oh! Hey Caitlin, what's up?" Oliver looked up from his fight his eyebrows pulled together in worry. He held up his hands, a silent gesture to Laurel to pause the spar.

"Wait what? Are you serious?" Felicity sounded concern which caused a slight panic in Oliver.

"Yeah.. Yeah, I think we can do that. See you in at least two hours max!" With that, Felicity ended her call.

"Is everything okay? Is  _everyone_ okay?" Oliver asked her before she could say anything.  _Is Barry okay?_ Was left unsaid.

"I.. I have no idea. But something happened to Barry and that's why we're going to Central City."

Oliver simply nodded and holding in his worry, he turned and got ready for the flight.

An hour and a half later they found themselves stepping out of a private plane and entering STAR Labs.

"Oh thank god," Caitlin muttered as soon as she saw them. "We um.. found the key to the door but we decided that Oliver should be the one that goes in.."

Oliver nodded and accepted the key from Caitlin. He walked towards the door and slipped the key into the slot and turned, slowly opening the door with a loud creaking noise. He slipped into the dark room and tried to spot the speedster.

"Barry..?" He called out tentatively. He took in the rooms appearance. Papers were scattered across the floor, the only desk in the room was flipped upside down and there were dents in the wall. All in all, it looked like a tornado had gone through the room. Which wouldn't be a surprise either seeing Barry had the power to do that.

Oliver couldn't help but wince, looking at the huge dent in front of him.  _Ouch, that must have hurt.._

There was a sudden  _sniff_ and he turned towards the sound, his heartbreaking, seeing Barry curled up in a tight ball against the corner of the wall. He stepped towards him but was stopped in his tracks when Barry spoke.

"You shouldn't come any close, O-Ollie." Barry choked out, head still buried in his knees and behind his arms.

"Why wouldn't I want to comfort my boyfriend?" Oliver asked softly, moving towards Barry.

Barry said something that was muffled.

"Can you repeat that?"

Barry suddenly looked up at him and he could see the tears dripping from his face. His heart clenched and he wanted to reach out to his lover.

"Maybe because your boyfriend is a killer."

The vigilante looked at him in confusion.

"What..?"

"I killed someone. He was just a mugger. I wasn't even supposed to be on  _duty_! But there was a m-mugging going on and the F- the Flash went t-to stop him and t-things became heated and he was behind me an- and I- I - I KILLED SOMEONE." Barry gave a loud sob and buried his head into Oliver's shoulders, who ended up hugging him during the explanation.

Oliver said nothing as he rubbed Barry's back in a soothing manner. Once Barry started to calm down, Oliver moved so their foreheads were pressing against each other and they were looking into each other's eyes. Using the pads of his thumb, he softly reached out and brushed away Barry's tears.

"How did you kill him?" It was said so quietly that Barry barely caught it.

"I - I used my powers. I t-turned around and my h-hands reacted and sm-smacked him into a w-wall." Barry hiccuped and tears began to gather at the corner of his eyes. "Ollie, I used my  _powers_. The one's people think I use for good."

"Barr, you do use them for good."

"I've killed someone with those powers. Some good I do."

"Barry. I used to kill people. Heck, I started out as a killer."

Barry shook his head. "It's not the same, and you know it. I have powers that I'm supposed to use for  _good_. You said the lightning chose me. Maybe the lighting made a mistake."

"Barry. No. I stand by what I said a year ago."

Oliver sighed. "Look, listen, did you  _mean_  to kill someone?"

Barry pulled away and blinked up at him in confusion. "What? Of course not! Ollie.."

"If you didn't mean it and don't plan on ever doing it again, it doesn't make you a killer, Barr."

A silence settled between them as Barry took in what he said.

"...it doesn't change the fact that I still killed him. He probably has a  _family_. Maybe a son and a wife. I robbed him of his life."

"Barry, he made that choice when he decided to become a criminal."

At Barry's unconvinced stare he decided on another tactic. He settled down next to Barry on the wall, hands still on the small of Barry's back in a comforting manner.

"The first time I killed something it was a bird.." The vigilante recalled, looking up to the ceiling.

Barry looked at him from his position. "..what?"

"It was when I first got to the island. Yao Fei..you remember him right?" At the other man's nod, he continued. "He uh.. He brought me a bird in a cage and told me in order to eat and survive I would have to kill the bird." He let out a forced, humorless chuckle. Barry said nothing but simply lay his head on Oliver's shoulder, listening to the story that was being shared with him. He didn't take the little times Oliver shared his years at the island lightly. Oliver liked to stay more in the present and rarely, if at all, shared his story.

"At first, I refused. Of course, I did. I was just a rich playboy who took life as a joke. But.. as time passed and I grew hungrier, I knew I would have to. So.. For survival, I took the bird out of the cage and snapped his neck."

"Oliver.." Barry raised his head from Oliver's shoulder to look at him, concern showing in his eyes.

"No, it's in the past now. But, I killed that bird because I wanted to survive. You killed that man because he snuck up behind you and was going to kill you himself. It was either you or him, and I'm glad it was him." Oliver paused a moment and let Barry take that all in.

"If you had died by his hands, I don't know what I would've done, Barr. What anyone would've done. As selfish as it sounds, I'm glad you did what you had to do."

"I'm glad you killed that bird too." Barry couldn't help but blurt out. A tinge of blush colored his cheeks as soon as he said it. "I mean.. You wouldn't be here if you didn't?"

Oliver raised an amused eyebrow at him and let out a short chuckle. In response, Barry gave a small smile and sat up straighter against the wall. His smile twitched as he thought about something.

"What do I do now?"

"You keep going, Barr. You can't go back to the past...- or maybe you can - but don't." Oliver looked Barry in the eye. "Promise me you won't. It replaces one event with something worse."

"I promise," Barry whispered.

"Learn from this experience. You have to just keep going forward. Keep training. Train your powers more and  _learn_ about it."

Barry gave a quiet laugh. "Has anyone told you how you make a great Dr. Phil?"

Oliver chuckled. "No.. But duly noted."

After a moment of silence, Oliver faced Barry. "Ready to face the others now? You don't have to tell them now. But they're worried about you."

Barry took in a deep breath and slowly let it out.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll- I'll tell them I'm okay.."

"Okay," Oliver said, pecking Barry's forehead and then pulled him up. They walked to the door, hand in hand, and Barry took another deep breath, steadying himself.

"Don't worry." Oliver squeezed his hands softly. "I'll be right by your side."

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this a while back and recently found so why not post it? I hope you enjoyed it (:


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